This week, David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, was scheduled to visit Tokyo - a trip which would have brought international attention to the Japanese government's suppression of the media. But at the last moment, officials canceled his trip claiming they were too busy to meet him.

The LDP is particularly keen to avoid scrutiny of the State Secrets Law which it rushed through parliament in late 2013.

The law gives the Japanese government free rein to classify as a state secret any information related to security and diplomacy - with zero independent oversight. Information can be kept classified for an indefinite period, including reports related to the triple meltdowns at Fukushima's nuclear power plant.

Under the new law, government whistleblowers can be jailed for 10 years while members of the media publishing leaked information face 5 years imprisonment; foreign journalists - like me - will probably be deported.

Realizing the future of their free press was at stake, the Japanese public - approximately 80% of whom oppose the act - organized some of the largest demonstrations seen here in decades. Newspaper editors, journalists, publishers and lawyers slammed the law as an attack on Japan's constitutionally-protected freedom of the press.

"We support the evolution of Japan's security policies, as they create a new national security strategy, establish a National Security Council, and take steps to protect national security secrets."

For many years, Washington's Japan-handlers have pressed Tokyo to introduce repressive legislation to protect secrets concerning the US-Japan security alliance. Most notably Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye include these laws on their wish-list in the 2012 CSIS report The US-Japan Alliance.

Such US government interference in Japanese domestic politics is nothing new; the CIA funneled money to the LDP throughout the 1950s and '60s to ensure a subservient ally in the region. In recent years, this pressure has increased with Washington repeatedly urging Japan to allow members of its Self-Defense Forces to join America's endless wars in the Middle East.

Last month, Donald Rumsfeld - who once referred to Japan's SDF as "boy-scouts" - was given one of Japan's highest honors, the Order of the Rising Sun. Armitage and Nye are recipients of the same award.

In PM Abe's government, the Pentagon has found a sympathetic ear for the remilitarization of Japan. Motivated by revisionist nostalgia for Japan's pre-1945 Empire and a misguided hope that war munitions might save the nation's stagnant industrial sector, this year the LDP moved to re-interpret the nation's peace constitution - the key obstacle to the remilitarization of Japan.

Worded purposefully vague, the laws allow Japan to send military forces to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two. These troops will fight alongside - or more likely under the command of - the US.

"We welcome Japan's ongoing efforts to strengthen the alliance and play a more active role in regional and international security activities, as reflected in Japan's new security legislation."

Once again, US support was at odds with popular sentiment in Japan. Many people here likened the rushed passage of the bill as a coup d'etat. Punch-ups between lawmakers broke out in the parliamentary chamber. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets - including, for the first time in a generation, many university students.

State broadcaster NHK gave scant coverage to these demonstrations - nor did it report about the man who set himself ablaze atop a Tokyo bridge to protest the war bills.

Given their experiences of World War Two, Okinawans are painfully aware of the dangers posed by PM Abe's resurgent militarism. More than a quarter of the island's population died in the spring of 1945 - sacrificed by Tokyo to delay a US invasion of the mainland. Between 1945 and 1972, the island was a US military colony and the storehouse of perhaps the planet's largest concentration of weapons of mass destruction - approximately 1200 nuclear warheads, thousands of tons of nerve gas and Agent Orange.

Today, Okinawans are still dealing with the consequences of the 27-year US occupation - dioxin contamination, underdeveloped civilian infrastructure and US bases which continue to take up almost 20% of the island, hobbling economic growth.

Another speaker suggested the Japanese government should pressure advertisers to cut their funding to the newspapers.

Public outrage at these comments was so great that PM Abe was forced to dismiss the study group's organizer from his position - but not from the LDP.

In the coming years, as Japan prepares to send troops to fight in American wars, attacks on press freedoms in Japan are sure to worsen. And Washington will likely encourage the Japanese government in these assaults - just as it dismantles First Amendment rights at home.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Jon Mitchell is a Welsh journalist based in Japan. He is the author of Tsuiseki: Okinawa no Karehazai(Chasing Agent Orange on Okinawa) (Koubunken 2014) and a visiting researcher at the International Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo. Mitchell is an Asia-Pacific Journal contributing editor.

This week, David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, was scheduled to visit Tokyo - a trip which would have brought international attention to the Japanese government's suppression of the media. But at the last moment, officials canceled his trip claiming they were too busy to meet him.

The LDP is particularly keen to avoid scrutiny of the State Secrets Law which it rushed through parliament in late 2013.

The law gives the Japanese government free rein to classify as a state secret any information related to security and diplomacy - with zero independent oversight. Information can be kept classified for an indefinite period, including reports related to the triple meltdowns at Fukushima's nuclear power plant.

Under the new law, government whistleblowers can be jailed for 10 years while members of the media publishing leaked information face 5 years imprisonment; foreign journalists - like me - will probably be deported.

Realizing the future of their free press was at stake, the Japanese public - approximately 80% of whom oppose the act - organized some of the largest demonstrations seen here in decades. Newspaper editors, journalists, publishers and lawyers slammed the law as an attack on Japan's constitutionally-protected freedom of the press.

"We support the evolution of Japan's security policies, as they create a new national security strategy, establish a National Security Council, and take steps to protect national security secrets."

For many years, Washington's Japan-handlers have pressed Tokyo to introduce repressive legislation to protect secrets concerning the US-Japan security alliance. Most notably Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye include these laws on their wish-list in the 2012 CSIS report The US-Japan Alliance.

Such US government interference in Japanese domestic politics is nothing new; the CIA funneled money to the LDP throughout the 1950s and '60s to ensure a subservient ally in the region. In recent years, this pressure has increased with Washington repeatedly urging Japan to allow members of its Self-Defense Forces to join America's endless wars in the Middle East.

Last month, Donald Rumsfeld - who once referred to Japan's SDF as "boy-scouts" - was given one of Japan's highest honors, the Order of the Rising Sun. Armitage and Nye are recipients of the same award.

In PM Abe's government, the Pentagon has found a sympathetic ear for the remilitarization of Japan. Motivated by revisionist nostalgia for Japan's pre-1945 Empire and a misguided hope that war munitions might save the nation's stagnant industrial sector, this year the LDP moved to re-interpret the nation's peace constitution - the key obstacle to the remilitarization of Japan.

Worded purposefully vague, the laws allow Japan to send military forces to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two. These troops will fight alongside - or more likely under the command of - the US.

"We welcome Japan's ongoing efforts to strengthen the alliance and play a more active role in regional and international security activities, as reflected in Japan's new security legislation."

Once again, US support was at odds with popular sentiment in Japan. Many people here likened the rushed passage of the bill as a coup d'etat. Punch-ups between lawmakers broke out in the parliamentary chamber. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets - including, for the first time in a generation, many university students.

State broadcaster NHK gave scant coverage to these demonstrations - nor did it report about the man who set himself ablaze atop a Tokyo bridge to protest the war bills.

Given their experiences of World War Two, Okinawans are painfully aware of the dangers posed by PM Abe's resurgent militarism. More than a quarter of the island's population died in the spring of 1945 - sacrificed by Tokyo to delay a US invasion of the mainland. Between 1945 and 1972, the island was a US military colony and the storehouse of perhaps the planet's largest concentration of weapons of mass destruction - approximately 1200 nuclear warheads, thousands of tons of nerve gas and Agent Orange.

Today, Okinawans are still dealing with the consequences of the 27-year US occupation - dioxin contamination, underdeveloped civilian infrastructure and US bases which continue to take up almost 20% of the island, hobbling economic growth.

Another speaker suggested the Japanese government should pressure advertisers to cut their funding to the newspapers.

Public outrage at these comments was so great that PM Abe was forced to dismiss the study group's organizer from his position - but not from the LDP.

In the coming years, as Japan prepares to send troops to fight in American wars, attacks on press freedoms in Japan are sure to worsen. And Washington will likely encourage the Japanese government in these assaults - just as it dismantles First Amendment rights at home.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Jon Mitchell is a Welsh journalist based in Japan. He is the author of Tsuiseki: Okinawa no Karehazai(Chasing Agent Orange on Okinawa) (Koubunken 2014) and a visiting researcher at the International Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo. Mitchell is an Asia-Pacific Journal contributing editor.